Wisconsin - Sunday

Hi again! I'm a little behind on my blogging but there's so much to tell. Sunday, despite all my best intentions to leave early I still didn't get out of the hotel until noon. However on earth do those people who race out the door at the crack of dawn on vacation manage it?

I spent the afternoon touring the Pabst Mansion in downtown Milwaukee. Yep, it's the same family as the beer. I've heard of cattle barons and robber barons, but apparently old Milwaukee had beer barons (hmm, were there chocolate or cheese barons too?). In 1890 when the average working man's annual income was $500, Frederick Pabst commissioned this mansion at a cost of $250,000. Even 100+ years later, it still feels like an ostentatious a display of wealth. They don't allow photo taking inside, but it was quite spectacular & there is a pretty good photo tour on their website. My favorite part of the house was the exquisite woodwork. I saw clamshells, oak leaves and acorns, hops and barley, delicate feathers, lions, stags and more carved throughout the house. The different rooms had different colors from stains & varieties of wood. Apparently Pabst brought some master craftsmen from Europe who wanted to come to American to do the cabinetry, woodwork, masonry etc. Kind of like the first H1-B visa program.

My volunteer tour guide was a stone-faced, steely-haired old lady who reminded me of the ruler-wielding nun from The Blues Brothers. We lined up behind her like catholic schoolchildren & didn't dare step out of line, touch anything or ask questions. The whole house, esp. the massive winding 3-story staircase, felt like the perfect set for a scary ghost movie. From the corner of my eye I couldn't help watching for something SPOOKY to happen the whole time I was there!

After the tour I headed down to Veteran's Park on the Lake Michigan lake front. It's a huge, woodsy green park that is very similar to Gasworks Park or Greenlake in Seattle. Lake Michigan is so freakin' BIG and the breeze coming in off the water is so cool that the temperature down there is about 5-10 degrees cooler, very refreshing. There's also a rather fantastic piece of architecture in the form of the Milwaukee Art Museum. I got to ride around it a few times, & what impressed me was how completely different it looks from different angles. It's like 3 or 4 different buildings. There are some interesting pics of it on Wikipedia. I stopped to take a picture w/my camera phone, & it looks like vacation agrees with me. Can you tell i'm having a good time?
It was a gorgeously blue and sunny day, the kind that makes you just glad to be alive and doing what you're doing. I rented a bicycle & spent a blissful few hours riding the bike paths along the waterfront. There were sailboats going up up & down the lake, about a million seagulls, and families of Canadian geese out swimming with their goslings. Oh yes, and a Gay Pride festival! So, something for everybody. I could have stayed there all day.

The guy at the bike rental place tipped me off to Alterra, a great independent coffee house native to Milwaukee. I stumble onto the best places just by asking the locals! I love their motto, "servimos cafe fuerte aqui": we serve strong coffee here. As it should be! Anyways, it's funny, because I just went in for coffee, but it was so good I went back in for dinner, and then dessert, which of course led to another coffee apperitif. Oh well, carpe momentum! My only concern after that was getting to sleep for my software class on Monday. I love being on vacation! :)